Diner en Blanc NYC 2022

Last night I attended Diner en Blanc NYC right on the Hudson River outside of Brookfield Place. This year marked the 10th anniversary of Diner en Blanc in NYC!

At Diner en Blanc, thousands of attendees dress up in white, head to toe, and gather together for a large dinner celebration. What is unique and fun about this event, aside from everything being in all white, is:

• you need to bring your own table, seats and picnic for dinner, however you can order a gourmet picnic basket

• the location is a secret until just a few hours before the event

• at the start of the event everyone waives their white napkins

Chef Todd English & I

The highlights of the night included delicious bites made by none other than Chef Todd English and featured champagne from Baron de Rothschild Champagne. I was lucky enough to had the opportunity to meet and chat with Todd in the media lounge, he was so down to earth and friendly!

Fun facts I learned about Todd English, despite using caviar for his high end clientele he is NOT a fan of caviar, but IS a fan of anchovies, in fact he likes to eat them straight!

Can’t wait to see where the Diner en Blanc will be held next year!

Cheers

Baron de Rothschild Champagne

Cousins Girl Day!

Today I took my younger cousin Jenna out for a girl day! Jenna just finished her freshman year of college and this was our first time to hang out in the city without her parents! (I guess they trust me!)

Here’s the perfect girls day guide, especially if you are under 21:

Brunch at Maman
Maman is a cute restaurant/bakery/cafe for brunch and pastries, I love the ambiance at the restaurant - it is cute, yet classy, but still casual at the same time. We shared a ratatouille hash, some pastries and both got iced elderberry matcha lattes!

Kayaking on the Hudson at Pier 96
The Manhattan Community Boathouse at Pier 96, located at 55th Street & West Side Highway offers free kayaking throughout the summer. You can book a timeslot in advanced or just walk up, which is what we did. When you get there, you sign a waiver, get a life vest, paddle, wait until it is your turn and you are good to go for 30 minutes. This was a lot of fun and I would highly recommend!

Intrepid Museum
Next we decided to visit the Intrepid Museum as it was just down the block from kayaking. The Intrepid is a Sea, Air, & Space Museum on an actual aircraft carrier, featuring a lot of historical war and space exhibits. It is a bit pricy to visit, but definitely worth checking if you are into war history and want to be aboard a battle ship!

$1 Pizza
Jenna had never had $1 pizza, so we had to stop for some authentic pizza at 2 Bros before she headed home!

I love spending time with my family, can’t wait for the next cousins girls day!

Broadway is Back

Freestyle Love Supreme

Tonight I went to see Freestyle Love Supreme, my first Broadway show since Broadway went dark because of COVID. Thank you American Express for the tickets!

Freestyle Love Supreme is one of Lin Manuel Miranda’s original Broadway plays, written before “In the Heights” and “Hamilton.” I had heard about this play, but honestly did not know what to expect from the show. However, by the end of the show, I absolutely LOVED it!

Freestyle Love Supreme Final Bow

The concept of the show is very interactive, the performers rapped & beatboxed freestyle verses based on words and stories from the audience. (After the show I definitely wanted to give beatboxing another shot, if anyone wants to teach me, please let me know!)

The most interesting freestyle was based on a women in the audience’s childhood. The woman’s brother had put their pet hamster named “Chicken Nugget” in the freezer, and their grandmother unfortunately found the hamster hours later when she was making dinner… and you can imagine what condition the hamster was in… it was not pretty.

Freestyle Love Supreme Playbill at the Booth Theater

All of the freestyle performed were so original and fun, I can see why they won a Tony award!

I am so excited Broadway has returned! What play should I see next?

What a Night!

Today was an interesting night… but an adventure to say the least.

Last night I saw my now ex-boyfriend (long sad story and not used to using this term “ex”) for the first time in person after we ended things. It has been really sad, but I will get through it. As a result, I was anticipating tonight to be a quiet night to reflect on yesterday’s events, however this was not the case.

My producer / videographer from Style Music TV reached out to me with a fashion & beauty press event at the Crosby Street Hotel in Soho. I figured why not get dressed up and go out, it beats staying at home and being sad!

I went to the event, and it was definitely not what I had anticipated, it was a soiree of very cliquey unwelcoming fashion types. I was ready to turn around as soon as I saw the event, but figured why not - I was already there and was at a cute hotel with free drinks! I got some champagne and walked around. I ended up meeting this awesome gay couple - one of which works for Interview, which was founded by Andy Warhol and a modeling agent. We chatted a bit and I shared the news of my break up. Mitchell was very interested to learn more about the dating apps and how my ex and I had met. Its interesting how the dating game has changed so much in such a short time frame. We chatted for a bit and actually exchanged #’s - why not make new friends?!

On my way to the subway I passed the set of the new Sex & the City reboot, where I also made some new friends AND even caught a glimpse of none other than SJP, Sarah Jessica Parker! I made friends with a fellow fan and one of the lighting guys. I ended up switching #’s with both of them, however I was actually asked to get drinks by the fellow SJP fan who had shared her video of SJP with me! What a funny turn of events!

Ending the night on a high note, made my way home - the train was quick, not too packed and I felt very safe, the city is back! But that was not quite the end of my night… On the way home - I passed Krispy Kreme and got a delicious doughnut! I felt like I deserved it after the day I had yesterday! If you have not had a Krispy Kreme doughnut, you definitely need to try one. They are like clouds that melt in your mouth!

In an interesting turn of events, what I thought was going to be a terrible week and bust of a night ended up being full of fun surprises!

Don’t life get you down, always try to find your silver lining!

Up Close & Personal with the Times Square NYE Ball!

As 2018 comes to an end, one of my favorite ways to ring in the new year is to watch the NYE ball drop in Times Square.

This year, I had the pleasure of getting up close and personal with the Waterford Crystal ball that drops every year on NYE at One Times Square!

Check out my interview with Waterford Crystal’s Tom Brennan, who was the lead in designing the amazing ball that is seen across the world on New Year’s Eve!

Fun Facts:

The Waterford Ball is:

• Illuminated by 32,256 LED lights

• 12 feet in diameter and weighs 11,875 pounds

• 2,688 Waterford Crystal triangles are bolted to 672 LED modules, attached to the frame of the ball

Surprisingly the ball was only located a few flights up from the 21st floor. However, this did not take away any of the allure or grandeur of the Waterford Ball. It is just phenomenal up close!

One of the Waterford Crystal Triangles

Happy National Dessert Day

Hope everyone has a sweet day!!!​

​I just tasted these delicious cupcakes from Huascar & Co Bake Shop.  The flavors going clockwise were Nutty Fella (chocolate fudge cupcake with Nutella filling, Glanduja buttercream frosting with chocolate pearls toasted hazelnuts), Pink Lemonade (lemon sour cream and raspberry cupcake with raspberry buttercream frosting and raspberry chocolate curls) and Berry Champgne (pink champagne cupcake with strawberries baked in iced with vanilla-pink champagne frosting)! 

​Huascar & Co had a bunch of fun flavors and other items in the store, such as spiked tres leches cake which is one of my favorite kind of cakes!  The cupcakes were pretty tasty, more dense than fluffy, the Nutty Fella even had a filling, which was delicious. As for the frosting, I thought it was a bit hard and too bitter tasting, however they did have interesting frosting flavors to go with the different cupcakes. 

Happy National Ice Cream Day!

Rainbow Cookie Ice Cream topped with Homemade Lemon Meringue from Bona Bona Ice Cream

Celebrating National Ice Cream Day at the 3rd Annual NYC Summer Ice Cream Blizzard - with a variety of NYC's most unique artisan ice cream makers and flavors.

For those of you who know me well, you know I have a big sweet tooth and LOVE ice cream!  

Today I attended the 3rd Annual NYC Summer Ice Cream Blizzard at the Grand Baazar NYC on the Upper West Side. There were so many varieties of ice cream it was hard to choose where to go! There was everything from ice cream mochi from My/Mo Mochi Ice Cream, ice cream sandwiches from Melt Bakery and Thai ice cream rolls from Minus Celsius Ice Cream to ice cream stuffed donuts from Stax Ice Cream, ice cream like cookie dough from 2 Dough Boyz and deep fried ice cream from Sam's Fried Ice Cream to name a few.   

I decided to get something new that I had not seen before (which is rare when it comes to ice cream) - rainbow cookie ice cream topped with toasted lemon meringue from Bona Bona Ice Cream! If you’re wondering, yes it tastes as good as it looks!  The rainbow cookie ice cream had bits of rainbow cookie in it (one of my favorite cookies), and the toasted lemon meringue added a nice touch, definitely a good decision made today! 

Thank you to my friend Della for indulging in my love of ice cream and attending this, despite the intense heat today!  

Until next time, stayed tuned for more ice cream and foodie adventures!  

Accidental Blind Date

Never thought the words "accidental blind date" would come across my mouth, but at the same time, this would only happen to me... thank you online dating.  

Here's the rather amusing story:

I was meeting with my friend for dinner to catch up at Bea in Hell's Kitchen.  My friend had already arrived by the time I got there, so I told the hostess that I was meeting my friend Jayme, who had made a reservation.  She seems confused, but then points me in the direction of a random man, clearly not my female friend...

The man walks over and says "Patricia?"   I tell him, I am not her.  He continues, "You do not look like the woman in the pictures..."  Despite this, it definitely crossed his mind that I could have been his date for the night - LOL!

We turn to the hostess, clearly not who we both had intended to meet with, and let her know.  After a few more minutes of awkwardly waiting, the hostess finally brought me to meet my friend.

As my friend and I are exiting the restaurant, I see the man with his date, who happens to be Asian, like myself :P  I will say it looked like they had hit it off, despite the mix up.  Congrats to him - lets hope he can spot her out in a crowd for their next date!

Thank you to the hostess for trying to to set me up on an accidental blind date!